1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a face plate and a retainer which are adapted to be inserted into a bore of a door for rotatably receiving a tubular latch housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,190,683 issued to E. L. Schlage discloses a retainer and tubular latch housing to correctly orient the latch bolt. U.S. Pat. No. 5,039,146 issued to Jui C. Lin discloses a tubular latch housing to obviate the shortcoming that might result from improper pinching force of the sleeve of Schlage against the latch housing. However, in the structure by Lin, if the internal parts of the latch housing which are received in the bore of the door are damaged, it is difficult to remove the damaged latch housing from the outer side of the bore of the door due to the existence of the ring 11, while, in the Schlage's design, it is impossible to remove the damaged latch housing from the outer side of the bore of the door. A further shortcoming of the design of Lin is that the thickness of the door must exceed a certain extent so as to accommodate the whole arrangement. Therefore, there has been a long and unfulfilled need for an improved face plate or retainer to solve these problems without affecting free rotation of the latch housing.